- Letters: L/AEIKTV
- Words: 65
- Points: 246
- Pangrams: 1
|
The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
The Halloween, 2021 redesign improved the usability, I hope.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
| |
|
Table content
|
| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 1 | AL | 4 | Illumination (Let there be …); noun/verb |
| 28 | 1 | AL | 5 | Similar, adj.; or find agreeable or enjoyable, verb |
| 32 | 1 | AL | 5 | Exist, verb; or not on tape (TV show), adj. |
| 1 | 1 | AL | 6 | Acid opposite in chem. (soluble base) |
| 2 | 1 | AL | 6 | (Bio term) 1 of 2 or more versions of a gene |
| 3 | 1 | AL | 9 | Make suffering less severe |
| 47 | 1 | AT | 5 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 4 | 1 | AV | 5 | Make use of (… yourself of), or use (to no …) |
| 5 | 1 | EL | 5 | Make someone ecstatically happy, verb |
| 7 | 1 | EL | 5 | Select group that’s superior |
| 6 | 1 | EL | 7 | Raise up, verb |
| 8 | 1 | EV | 4 | Wicked (ELO’s “… Woman”, Santana's "… Ways") |
| 9 | 1 | KA | 4 | Trendy lettuce (but really leaf cabbage) |
| 10 | 1 | KE | 4 | Bottom stabilizing ridge of a boat or ship |
| 11 | 1 | KE | 6 | Large metal pot for cooking, usually with a handle (thats's a fine … of fish) |
| 12 | 1 | KI | 4 | Murder |
| 13 | 1 | KI | 4 | ♂ plaid skirt in Scotland |
| 14 | 1 | KV | 5 | feel happy and proud (Yiddish) |
| 15 | 1 | LA | 4 | Large body of freshwater (Great ones are Erie, Superior, etc.) |
| 16 | 1 | LA | 4 | Running behind (I’m … for class), or deceased (The … Charles Grodin) |
| 19 | 1 | LA | 4 | Molten rock from a volcano |
| 20 | 1 | LA | 4 | Wash |
| 17 | 1 | LA | 5 | Potato pancake, usually served with sour cream |
| 18 | 1 | LA | 5 | Coffee with espresso & steamed milk |
| 21 | 1 | LE | 4 | Place where water escapes a pipe or hose, or info spilled to a reporter |
| 23 | 1 | LE | 4 | Veg similar to onion; homophone of place where water escapes a pipe |
| 22 | 1 | LE | 5 | Depart, verb |
| 24 | 1 | LE | 5 | River embankment to prevent flooding |
| 25 | 1 | LE | 5 | Flat, adj.; or straightening tool with bubble, noun |
| 26 | 1 | LE | 8 | needed |
| 28 | 1 | LI | 4 | Similar, adj.; or find agreeable or enjoyable, verb |
| 29 | 1 | LI | 4 | Singsong accent |
| 30 | 1 | LI | 4 | Low-calorie or low-fat in ad-speak (Miller … beer) |
| 32 | 1 | LI | 4 | Exist, verb; or not on tape (TV show), adj. |
| 31 | 1 | LI | 6 | Small (Stuart or Chicken …), adj. |
| 33 | 1 | TA | 4 | Dogs wag this hind appendage |
| 34 | 1 | TA | 4 | Story (fairy…), NOT what dogs wag; noun |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 4 | Speak (…to the hand!) |
| 36 | 1 | TA | 4 | Of greater than average height, adj. |
| 38 | 1 | TA | 4 | Ankle bone |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 6 | Speak (…to the hand!) |
| 37 | 1 | TA | 6 | Fringed prayer shawl |
| 39 | 1 | TA | 6 | Rat out your sibling to your parents |
| 35 | 1 | TA | 9 | Speak (…to the hand!) |
| 40 | 1 | TA | 10 | Someone who rats out a sibling (compound) |
| 42 | 1 | TE | 4 | Blue-green color, or a duck with a stripe of that color |
| 43 | 1 | TE | 4 | Inform, verb; or Swiss archer William with an overture |
| 44 | 1 | TE | 8 | Revealing, compound adj.; or indication, compound noun (Poe’s “The … Heart”) |
| 41 | 1 | TE | 9 | Device for brewing a hot drink popular in Asia and England; it may whistle when the water boils, compound |
| 45 | 1 | TI | 4 | Thin ceramic wall, counter, flooring, or roofing square |
| 46 | 1 | TI | 4 | Cash register or drawer, noun; “up to,” preposition; or prep soil for planting, verb |
| 47 | 1 | TI | 4 | Move into a sloping position, or fight windmills (… at) |
| 49 | 1 | TI | 5 | Name of a book, movie, or job, noun/verb |
| 50 | 1 | TI | 6 | Dot above an i or j, or really small amount |
| 48 | 1 | TI | 9 | Stimulate or excite, especially in a sexual way |
| 51 | 1 | VA | 4 | Low area of land between mountains (… of Tears) |
| 52 | 1 | VA | 5 | Parking attendant, or one who helps you dress |
| 53 | 1 | VA | 5 | Device that controls passage of fluid or air (shut-off …, heart …) |
| 54 | 1 | VE | 4 | Calf meat (… Parmesan) |
| 55 | 1 | VE | 4 | Bride’s face covering |
| 56 | 1 | VE | 6 | Soft fabric, developing antler cover, or Lou Reed’s “… Underground” rock band |
| 57 | 1 | VI | 4 | Small glass container (… of poison), NOT despicable |
| 58 | 1 | VI | 4 | Despicable, NOT a small glass container; adj. |
| 59 | 1 | VI | 5 | Large & luxurious country house (Roman …) |
| 60 | 1 | VI | 5 | Essential, or lively (… signs) |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.